Easy Touch Is An iOS AssistiveTouch-Inspired Multitasking Tool For Android

One of the biggest advantages of being an Android user is the broad range of apps and tools you have at your disposal for achieving various purposes, and when it comes to multitasking and app switching solutions, things are no different. While certain solutions add an interactive and personalized app drawer alongside your device’s screen edge, others offer an omnipresent on-screen trigger that you can interact with to switch back and forth between apps, or play around with various system features from anywhere in Android. Adding to the latter category is Easy Touch – an extremely lightweight and customizable Android app switching and multitasking solution with built-in 1-tap memory optimizer, system/power toggles, contact shortcuts and the ability to emulate various hardware buttons. More on Easy Touch past the break...

Just like the previously-reviewed 2nd HOME, onDeck and my personal favorite SwitchApps, Easy Touch can be summoned from anywhere within Android – especially useful in full-screen apps – by tapping a floating on-screen trigger, which seems to have been inspired from the AssistiveTouch feature of iOS.

Koush’s ClockworkMod Superuser Offers PIN Protection, Multi-User Support & More

ChainsDD’s Superuser and Chainfire’s SuperSU finally have some serious competition, as Koushisk Dutta (aka Koush) – the developer of the famous ClockworkMod recovery and several Android apps likeTether, Carbon, and DeskSMS – has come up with a root access management app of his own. Currently in beta, ClockworkMod Superuser by Koush aims to add more features and transparency to the process of managing root access requests by third-party apps. Besides being free and completely open-source, this Holo themed tool brings with it several nifty features such as multiuser support on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean tablets, support for x86 & ARM devices, PIN protection for approval of Superuser requests, user-specified timeout for denying Superuser requests to apps, ability to handle concurrent Superuser requests effectively and full support for Android’s permissions model...

Podkeeper Is A Free Android Podcast App With Batch Downloads & Management

With likes of Volksempfanger, VoAudio and AntennaPod alreadya vailable on Play Store, no one can complain about Android not having enough quality podcast apps. To add to that tally, we have just found yet another promising candidate in the Holo-themed Podkeeper that seems to have all the makings of a brilliant podcast app. Barring the native vodcast streaming capabilities, Podkeeper boasts almost all the key features one expects to find in a good podcast player. The app lets you search for and subscribe to podcasts without having to register with any service. For each subscription and its episodes, it displays ample information and lets you download episodes in bulk. In addition, the app supports seamless playback, offers background playback support, lets you mark chosen episodes as listened or unlistened, complete with visual indicators, and allows you to define player behavior in case of phone calls or upon connecting or removing the headphone jack...

 

Sidebar Is Another Ubuntu-Style Android App Launcher With System Toggles

Canonical released Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview for a select few Nexus devices earlier this week, allowing many interested users like me to get a feel of this Linux-based operating system on our smartphones and tablets. Like most facets of the OS, its interactive vertical app switch list is quite commendable, since it allows you to quickly launch any app from anywhere in the OS with minimum effort. This convenience and easy of use seems to have inspired many Android developers to incorporate similar multitasking solution within their own offerings such as like Unity Launcher and Glovebox, and the latest entrant in this list is Sidebar by XDA sebuir member Mohammad_Adib – the same guy who introduced us to the previously reviewed Floating Stickies. Like most similar solutions we’ve already seen, Sidebar offers plenty of customizations to personalize the sidebar. However, the main advantage of this app is the ability to pin system toggles to the sidebar as well, in addition to your favorite apps...

As the app’s name suggests, it adds a dedicated ‘sidebar’ along the left screen edge of your Android device, containing your chosen apps and system toggles. This vertically scrollable switch list is customizable and can be summoned from anywhere in the OS by using the swipe-in gesture from the left edge.

Atrium Is A Faster, Lightweight Facebook App For Android

The official Facebook Android app may have finally gone native in its last major update but despite that, it hasn’t been able to impress many users with its speed improvements. As a result, avid Facebookers are left with no choice but to keep looking for better, faster and more responsive companion apps to keep connected to their social world through their mobile devices. Developed by XDA member radiantbits, Atrium is an unofficial Facebook app for Android that seems to have all the makings of a worthy Facebook mobile client. To begin with, the Holo-esque UI of the app is quite neatly built, allowing you to post status updates, check in to your favorite places, share photos & videos, chat with online friends, enjoy high quality photos in full screen, and explore detailed user profiles with ease. Atrium also lets you set a custom time interval to sync your Facebook content, this preventing it from constantly running in the background to save you precious battery life. More to follow...

Looking at the app’s interface, you immediately get an impression that it’s been built keeping simplicity and intuitiveness on the forefront. There are no needless features or excessive configuration options to play around with, and you can switch between your Facebook news feeds and chats with a mere tap. The app’s persistent notification drawer icon lets you instantly launch Atrium from anywhere in Android.

PAUL For Android Is A Smart Online Media Aggregator With Automatic Downloading

Wish you could access your favorite videos and music gathered from various online video and social media services under one roof? How about an app for your smartphone that can automatically download all your favorite content at a time of your choice each day, so that you can enjoy seamless playback of your favorite media anytime and anywhere? Want your Android device to keep you updated about the latest videos to be featured on your favorite online services on a dedicated home screen widget? If your answer to all these questions is ‘yes’, then PAUL by Inmobly is just what you’re looking for! Fresh to the Play Store, PAUL is capable of aggregating and automatically downloading the latest videos and music from the likes of YouTube, CNN, ESPN ScoreCenter, Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter at user-specified times of the day, so that you don’t have to buffer all the stuff again and again. In doing so, PAUL not only saves you ample bandwidth, but also ensures that you have access to all your personalized media content even when you’re not connected to the internet...

Get News, Social Feeds & Recent Apps On Android Lock Screen With Sulia Quick Launch

Custom Android lockscreen replacements are abound in the Play Store, but few have been able to impress me more than Condiut’s Quick Launch, which is capable of filling your Android device’s lock screen with iPhone-style notifications, favorite app widgets, sound profile toggles, custom backgrounds, direct unlocking buttons for the dialer, camera & recent apps, music playback controls and what not! If you wish your lockscreen could keep you updated with the latest news and social media feeds in the same elegant way, take the company’s latest brainchild, Sulia Quick Launch, for a spin. Like Quick Launch, this brand new lockscreen replacement app from Conduit sports a 4-way ring-shaped slider to help you unlock directly to the dialer, messaging, camera or a recently opened app. However, the standout feature of the entire package remains the interactive and beautiful cards displaying the latest news and your social network feeds...

As indicated by its name, Sulia Quick Launcher fetches its news stories from the trusted service of Sulia, and also shows the latest social activities from your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account in the same carousel-oriented layout on the lockscreen.

 

MovieBase Is A Holo-Themed Movie Discovery Android App With Play Movies Support

In the past couple of months, we have seen quite a few highly attractive, informative and customizable movie discovery apps for Android arrive in the Play Store. First it was Movie Twist, then came Movie App HD, and today we have come across yet another promising movie exploration tool in the form ofMovieBase, which seems as gorgeous and information-rich as its counterparts, to say the least. Retrieving all its movie-related details from the widely acknowledged services of themoviedb.org, MovieBase offers a wealth of information on your favorite, past, upcoming and top films as well as famous celebrities from all across the globe. Through a simply designed Holo UI, the app lets you browse movies by genre, rating, popularity, currently playing and release time. For each movie, you get to see relevant information about the actors, crew members, production companies, involved locations, budgets, revenues, move websites, status, genre, release dates, taglines, movie plots, full descriptions and what not. More to follow...

Install Ubuntu Touch Preview On Nexus Devices The Easy Way From Recovery [Complete Guide]

The announcement of Ubuntu for Phones and the more recent one of Ubuntu for Tablets had sparked huge interest in the entire smartphone enthusiast community and kept countless Nexus device owners waiting to get their hands on the Ubuntu Touch experience.  Finally, the wait is over, as Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview has landed on the Nexus series of devices including Nexus 10, Nexus 7, Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus, just as Canonical promised it would.  Though if you have rushed to the original installation method provided by Canonical at the official Ubuntu Wiki, many of you must have been disappointed at learning that the method required you to be running Ubuntu on your PC in order to install it. A Linux based OS running PC is not everyone’s cup of tea and it’s hardly fair to install or even dual boot a new OS only to be able to install a new one on your mobile device – and one that is already highly experimental at this point. Luckily, there is an easier and much more more familiar way to get Ubuntu Touch up and running on your Nexus devices, irrespective of the OS on your PC. That’s right – we are talking about the usual flashing from a custom recovery. So let’s get on with it...

Mokriya Releases Arguably The Best Craigslist App For Android & iOS

If you are looking for a neatly-built and user-friendly Craigslist app for your Android or iOS-powered device, try taking Mokriya for a spin. Fresh to the Play Store and iTunes App Store, Mokriya is an officially licensed Craigslist client for Android and iOS that offers super-easy ad posting, convenient browsing and advanced searching options. The app’s uncluttered interface is arguably the best we’ve seen in a Craigslist mobile app in a long time. Besides exploring the extensive Craigslist directory organized under a wide array of categories, you can use the app’s various filters and search tools to instantly find items matching your exact criteria and preferences. Almost every ad listed in the app is supplemented with a wealth of information including contact details of the owner/dealer, photo galleries, descriptions, location maps and plenty more...